July 18
2005

First time posting a story, so I hope I did this right! Anyway, the root site at http://www.cantstopthesignal.co.uk/ also has a nonfunctional link for the international trailer. Perhaps it's coming online soon?

Edited to add spoiler tag; one of the tracknames gives away a scene setting in the movie. Not a huge spoiler, but for those staying pure as the driven snow, you've been warned.

I appreciate the link. I love the tempo variations on "The Trading Station," multiple emotions going on their. Part 2 is a bit of a trip. "Serenity" has me almost tearing. Looking forward to seeing these in the film. It's interesting to hear how heavy on the oriental influences these songs have.

Is there a reason why it's not Greg Edmonson (music on Firefly) that made the music of the movie?

Has Newman been imposed by the production? Edmonson's music was great for the series, he really brought something to this 'verse...

BTW, you might consider putting a "SPOILER" on this thread: I have just downloaded "The Trading Station" but the exact name of the file is kinda spoilerish for the movie (and I regreat having been spoiled - even so little - since I managed so far to get my ears and eyes far from anything too specific about the movie... :( ).

I'm really excited to hear this, when I saw the movie it was with fake temporary 'music place keepers'. I love the way these sound and I'll be very excited to see the film (eventually) with the finished music!

I really liked what I heard. I did hear "western" overtones, mostle due to the use of guitar and the big sort of "french horn" sound (like in The Magnificent 7) also, some of the sections with the rhythmic drums gave me a bit of a Firefly flashback. I think it does a fine job dovetailing with the Firefly soundtrack.

Really makes me curious about what the first film composer (can't even remember his name) had in mind that was so wrong. Some techno-rock thing perhaps?

*Squeals of delight* I love this music! I can imagine every scene, from the opening, to the sweeping flights of going for a ride to the battle scene of the last song. Oh man, I soooo hope they have the soundtrack in place when I get to see the movie in a fortnight! OK am having a Serenity moment. *many many more squeals*

(1) Bix: I'm on OSX, and the downloaded samples played just fine on my Windows Media Player. (Though of course VLC Player is now the default player for most of my media, too; it rules.)

(2) Znachki: The first film composer was the great Coen Brothers collaborator Carter Burwell. He was probably let go because of his lack of experience with action cues; Burwell is more of a ambient film-music writer (and a damn good one; when I heard that the man behind the wretched, too-quiet "Series of Unfortunate Events" score replaced Burwell, I was personally aghast).

(3) Rogue Slayer: They were giving these out at Comicon? As CDs?! Egad, that's gonna be a collector's item. Anyone who wants to unload theirs, or who snagged an extra I'll take it, and pay modestly for the privilege: culturepulp at gmail dot com.

As for my opinion of the samples: I'm cautiously optimistic. I had the good fortune to attend all three previews, and came to really enjoy the temp cues at several junctures, particularly in the opening and final moments of the film. It will actually be more jarring to hear this music replace it than it was to watch the effects improve. It could make or break the film, really.

Bix: I'm on OSX, and the downloaded samples played just fine on my Windows Media Player.

Yeah this is the 2nd time I've heard that (although I'm hearing far more "unable to play" comments), and I don't get it. What OSX are you on? I'm still on 10.3.9, with current WMP, and WMP acts like it's playing the files but doesn't actually output any audio.

Ok, the weird thing is, I redownloaded them all and now WMP plays them. So either there's a gremlin in my laptop, or I brainfarted on something originally and it was my fault that they didn't play before.

I was most fortunate to attend both a preview screening in May and the screening last night of the final movie. This music made a world of difference for me. There are moments where the music brought tears to my eyes. I was really missing the Firefly-style music during the early screening, but the final version contains just the right mix of music that made the film even more spectacular. (and besides the music, the subtle adjustments in editing improved the film tremendously into a polished, cohesive, magnificent film. I think it is the best movie I have ever seen!).

And yes, the Universal people handed out CD's with the movie tickets. I will see if I can get an extra for you, HudsonVC.

I really wish you all could have been there. September (and October/November for some) can't arrive soon enough!

Ok, Salty, you say you saw a May screening and this final cut. Can you describe the differences, beyond the score?

Not incidentally, the more I listen to these score clips, the more impatient I am getting to see the film again in its completed form. It sounds to me like the score is going to work really, really well.

Well I am very un-musical but I liked it a lot. The brief Serenity clip made me all stirred up, which for a person who is close to tone deaf means something.

I prefer a rather more ‘in your face’ expressive and sweeping music to a film as subtleties are sadly lost on me. Pirates works for people like me big time, so I don’t think any similarities are necessarily a bad thing. I suspect this is true for many other people who are into more mainstream music.

I am not sure this post makes sense, I am rubbish talking about music. I liked it and I kind of got it and I am very happy with that.

Thank you also to the people who bothered to put this up for the rest of us!

theonetruebix, I don't know if this is the thread to talk about the other differences, but let me just say that I could feel the labor of love that Joss put into polishing this film. In the first screening, it seemed so fast-paced, intense, hard to catch your breath. The story is the same, but the music and editing gave you more time to process the story and some much-needed moments of peace to experience the story rather than speeding through it. It truly amazed me how much the music helped with this. I had really missed the western influences in the music in the first screening. You are right to think that it worked really, really, well. And it lightened up the tone a bit.

If someone starts a thread about the Comic-Con screening of the film, I will definitely post more info about the differences there.

These clips are growing on me each time I listen to them. It took me 4 or 5 listens to notice that there's a strain in "Serenity" which reappears in "Going" and "Trading" (part 2), and now I can clearly see other moments in the movie where I bet that same strain reappears in the score.

I actually kept thinking "Braveheart" during the first couple clips, which all sounded pretty much the same to me. I know that US country music has Celtic roots, but that was all I was hearing. Of course I do not usually pay attention to the music during a movie unless it is brought to my attention somehow, so it probably does not matter what my reation to it is when it is disassociated from the movie. As long as it does what it needs to do in the finished product, I'm happy.

I was thinking that they should remix the Firefly theme and put it in the movie somewhere. Some people balked about that idea when I first said that, because they want the original theme, but I honestly don't think the it fits the movie. So, making it all instrumental and epic-y is a fantastic idea. Oooh, I'm getting all excited now! I can't wait to experience that. It's going to give me goosebumps, I just know it.